Tender Love starts out with some nice dark ambient that includes dismal distorted rumblings that lend a slight death industrial feel to the piece. The source material is indicated as wind, vocals, dirt, a rock, and glass. The vocals are fairly hard to notice, if at all, but it's all about atmosphere here. Things are pretty consistent and repetitive, and the side ends with an excellent locked grove. Anemone Tube (Germany) offers up some slightly harsher noise, and it's interesting in that it sort of defies simple categorization. It's part ambient, but it's somewhat abrasive. There are drones and crackling distortion, but the feel is unique. The louder output volume is nice, but the track isn't as strong as Tender Love's. The sleeve is printed in black ink on metallic silver paper, and the cover is all text that layers the record title's blending of the two band names. There's are two inserts on red paper, one which is smaller and reveals a T.S. Eliot quote, and another larger piece that contains an interesting passage regarding the nature of experimentalism. There's also a postcard insert from Anemone Tube's Transfixional Entertainment label with some wonderful abstract artwork on it. This is a nice split, but I honestly would have preferred to hear more from Tender Love, as the Anemone Tube composition falls short by comparison. This is a rather old 7" at this point, I believe it came out back in 1999, but there may still be copies available?
[Inner Space]
Running time - 10:00 (approximately), Tracks: 2
[Notable tracks: Love Tube]
Inner Space - [email protected]
